Binational Assembly of the Binational Manager Group of the Shared Honduras-El Salvador Goascorán River Basin

19 November 2012 | News story

Key local-to-national stakeholders in the Binational Goascorán River Basin meet to advance strengthening of transboundary institutionality

El Salvador (2012). A binational assembly was held August 13-14 in La Unión, El Salvador, to review the situation of the Binational Manager Group of the Goascorán River Basin. Partipants included ministries, secretariats, associated municipalities, local economic development orgnizations, NGOs and cooperation agencies in Honduras and El Salvador.

During the meeting, Luis Maier of IUCN’s BRIDGE project talked about the current situation of the Manager Group, the need for structuring and progress achieved thus far thanks to the inclusion and interest of key stakeholders.

Participants also discussed the international legal framework, principles of international law on shared watersheds, codes of conduct and background on agreed good practices concerning watershed management.

A group analysis was conducted on the possibility of implementing a binational good practices mechanism and on work priorities in the Goascorán watershed. Commission members also decided on the make-up of national and binational groups to follow up on planning a binational work strategy.

This binational assembly was organized in the frame of Project BRIDGE: Building River Dialogue and Governance, financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and executed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Fundación Vida.